Karin Öberg just won the prestigious Packard fellowship. Her citation reads: "Öberg is an astrochemist. She combines ice experiments and radio astronomy to explore the chemistry present during planet formation. This chemistry regulates the compositions and habitability of nascent planets, and is thus key to our understanding of the origins of life."

Yuan-Sen Ting, a graduate student in Harvard's Ph.D. program in Astronomy/Astrophysics, was honored with the presentation of the Perdana Scholar Award. It was presented by the Prime Minister of Malaysia at a ceremony in New York City on Friday, September 26 at which a number of Malaysian Senators and Ministers were also in attendance.

Phil Sadler was honored this week at the International Planetarium Society meeting in Beijing China. He received the 2014 Technology and Innovation Award.The award is given to recognize an individual or institution, “…whose technology and/or innovations in the planetarium field have been, through the years, utilized or replicated by other members and/or planetariums.” In 1977, Sadler invented the Starlab portable planetarium while a middle school math and science teacher. Read more about Phil Sadler Awarded IPS Technology and Innovation Award

"With hundreds of Earth-like planets discovered over the past few years, it’s fair to say we’re on the verge of finding alien life. Two new programs at NASA hope to find and analyze thousands more of these exoplanets, as they’re called. Scientists working on the Transiting Exoplanet Surveying Satellite (TESS) and the James Webb Space Telescope say there’s a very real chance of finding extraterrestrial life within the next two decades. So, if we’re about to meet our extraterrestrial neighbors, let’s get to work on some opening lines. What if we’re really not alone? Read more about Earth 2.0: NPR Radio Interview

"Humanity is on the threshold of being able to detect signs of alien life on other worlds. By studying exoplanet atmospheres, we can look for gases like oxygen and methane that only coexist if replenished by life. But those gases come from simple life forms like microbes. What about advanced civilizations? Would they leave any detectable signs?" Read more about A New Approach to SETI: Targeting Alien Polluters